Creating Ripples
Welcome to Creating Ripples, the programme that showcases inspirational women from across
the globe. You don't have to be Mother Teresa to make an impact on the world, sometimes the small
acts and achievement can create the biggest ripples.
We are here to share some amazing stories, they will make you laugh, sometimes they may make
you cry, and they will always inspire you.
The interviews ...
Below is a list of direct links to the interviews or you can browse them by scrolling down this page:
Charlotte is the founder of the 'Creating Inclusive Cultures' Programme which is a collaboration
of companies to drive sustainable change on Inclusion in cities across the UK. It is heralded as 'the
first serious programme that gets companies to work together on diversity and inclusion issues in the
UK regions' ...
Click for the interview with Charlotte SweeneyIn just four short months Michaele lost her home, her health, her job and almost her two daughters.
Four days after leaving her husband with six carrier bags and a child by each hand, she found she couldn't
walk as she was - in terms of metaphysics - left literally without a leg to stand on and no means of support.
One day she was Deputy Head of a thriving primary school and the next she was having radical knee surgery
and being made redundant from her job on the grounds of ill health. So what did she do? She went to prison -
a men's remand, where she spent the next nine years teaching inmates to read and researching suicide ...
Click for the interview with Michaele Wynn-JonesCatherine is a 20-year veteran of the software industry and has been involved in sales for most of that time.
In that time she has been involved in over 3000 sales enablement initiatives. She is a certified
coach, speaker and trainer for The John Maxwell company; is an executive in numerous organisations;
and currently runs her own sales enablement business - Inkwazi Communications ...
Click for the interview with Catherine SchalkJo has worked on a ranch in Colorado, been a PA, run a construction site control room from a
Portacabin on the M4, worked for Sol Kerzner, set up as freelance editor / proof reader / writer to
fund university as a mature student, been a landlady of her own pub and worked in creative communications
and business development. Now in her 50th year and mother of 3, Jo is proud to have opened Cappuchini -
a Station Platform Café ...
Click for the interview with Jo MurrayVictoria is a 42 year old mother of one who has recently given up her corporate career in
communications to take up a franchise in the UK's longest-running baby signing company, Sing and Sign.
Baby signing is becoming more and more popular among parents and experts alike, with many agreeing that
it provides a fantastic way for babies to learn to communicate long before speech is possible ...
Click for the interview with Victoria JonesKady is a French Ivorian Business woman. Following her Masters in Human Resources, she started her
career in France in re-cruitment and then moved to London to start her own business in 2007. She founded
King Stage, a recruitment company in London and serves as the Managing Director. She also helps people from
the EU to find their first job in UK, France and Spain and her keen interest in building business relations
between the UK and Africa led her to open the Cote d'Ivoire Chamber of Chamber of Commerce in Great
Britain in October 2015 ...
Click for the interview with Kady DoumbiaNoreen is a business growth coach and strategist to entrepreneurs who want to be more, earn more and
make a difference doing what they love. She is the Founder of The Radical Leap Company; a consultancy that
helps business owners and leaders address key growth issues within their organisations and offers solutions
to help increase performance, productivity and profits. She also offers private strategy consulting to
small-business owners and is currently a Business Advisor to the Cote d'Ivoire Chamber of Commerce in
Great Britain ...
Click for the interview with Noreen MakoseweElaine firmly believes that we all have the ability to be great; to be leaders in our fields. She
has been driven not only to deliver that for herself, but also to motivate others to find such inspiration.
Her enthusiasm is infectious, she is engaging, she connects with her audiences and reaches out to enable
and inspire others to the best they can be ...
Click for the interview with Elaine SullivanHoria's life started with war. She was born in 1973, just a few years before the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan which triggered the decades of conflict that have gripped her home country ever since.
She is now an Afghanistan Researcher with Amnesty International and in 2015 was awarded the Afghanistan Simurgh
Human Rights Award by the Arman Shahr Foundation ...
Click for the interview with Horia MusadiqAlison is a photographer and digital artist based near Battle in East Sussex, South East England. She
considers that she has been a photographer since she was 11 when an Aunt bought her a basic little Kodak
camera for Christmas. With her background and degree in Fine Art and English, Literature Alison developed
a passion for stories and visual art and she feels photography marries these two together beautifully,
particularly with the endless possibilities these days with Digital editing ...
Click for the interview with Alison MathiasHasina is the CEO of Compassionate Funerals which was founded in 2012. She believes that the way
we live is the way we die. "When we decide to live well, we decide to die well, allowing us to leave
the world a better place." She accepts those we leave behind will be saddened by our loss. Our heart's
job is to love one another. With death, the heart feels sadness. It is our responsibility to care for
people who are bereaved and to return them back to their life's purpose ...
Click for the interview with Hasina ZamanLama Gelongma Zangmo first became a practising Buddhist in 1977. Having received teachings from
many highly-respected Lamas who visited Kagyu Samye Ling, she was inspired to enter the four-year closed
retreat in 1984, during which time she became ordained as a Buddhist Nun. Since, in recognition of her
long experience, selfless qualities and commitment, she became the first person in the UK to be honoured
with the title of Lama in June 2001 ...
Click for the interview with Lama ZangmoMaxine was born and brought up in Africa. At the age of 17, she spent 6 months in Paris studying
and teaching English then moved to the UK at 18. She landed a job in the film business as PA to a
producer and her first marriage was to a very wealthy entrepreneur, much older than herself which
lasted only a year - but what a year! After many other adventures, the idea for a Holistic Centre came
to her in a flash and, 18 months later, after a major building project, The Elysian Centre was launched.
After all her years of travelling around the world Maxine has finally found somewhere she really
belongs ...
Click for the interview with Maxine harrisonSarah met her life partner and now her business partner of their jointly-owned fight camp - the
Siam Boxing Camp. Siam was launched in 2015 as a Community Interest Company and it was the best leap of
faith she ever took. Everything starts with a vision. Sarah lives by the thought, 'Believe in yourself
and what you are capable of' ...
Click for the interview with Sarah HallworthTerri has 20 years' experience of working in education - finding and developing children's individual
gifts. She has also worked with adults with profound and multiple learning difficulties. Terri's Masters
work on adolescent development (
The Identity Project) was written into the National Curriculum in
1999 and is used by schools all around the country ...
Click for the interview with Terri BroughtonPamela graduated from University of California, Davis with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental
Design and now runs her own studio committed to high-quality projects. Time with her family and friends
is precious - while connecting the dots between career, family life, community and volunteer activities
that make a difference in the lives of at-risk children ...
Click for the interview with Pamela NeimanMelody has a degree in Psychology, an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology, a Diploma in Psychotherapy
and is an NLP Master Trainer. Her Psychological Approaches to Coaching course is accredited by the
Association for Coaching. She has taught Positive Psychology as a visiting lecturer at the University
of East London ...
Click for the interview with Melody ChealErica is a graphic designer based in Hastings, England. She has been self-employed for over
20 years, primarily working for community organisations, festivals and small businesses. She has always
been active within her community, being involved with community groups, organising parties and events,
helping set up an online newspaper and campaigning about things she thinks are important ...
Click for the interview with Erica SmithAnna has been working as a Transpersonal Arts Counsellor for six years, having trained at the
alternative Tobias School of Art and Therapy whose training program places an emphasis on healing through
a more holistic and gentle approach to creativity. She regularly practices poetry, drama, art and dance
as a form of meditation and prayer. Her hope is that people learn to honour their creative landscapes and
give nourishment to their artistic appetites in order to blossom more fully than they ever
anticipated ...
Click for the interview with Anna AtkinsonWhen newly married, cash-strapped and pregnant, Marion Eaton set up her solicitor's practice in
a small market town in the 1970s, when women Solicitors were very few. Little did she think that 25
years later, through mergers and acquisitions, her firm would become part of one of the largest and
most prestigious legal firms in South East England ...
Click for the interview with Marion EatonElaine grew up with the belief and understanding that we can take responsibility for our own health
and wellbeing. Having been a sufferer of eczema from an early age, it was logical that this would become
Elaine's specialisation when she became a full-time health and wellbeing consultant in 1998. She
practices Kinesiology, Counselling and Liberating Touch to assist clients in identifying
sub-conscious blocks, manage fear and move through vulnerability to achieve change and
progression ...
Click for the interview with Elaine CopelandBaroness Uddin is a British Life Peer (member of the Upper House of Parliament) and community
activist of Bangladeshi descent. She is the first Muslim and second Asian woman to sit in the UK
Parliament. In 2009 she was included on
The Guardian's Muslim Women Power list for Britain.
In 2005 she was selected by Tony Blair to be part of a delegation to tackle extremism. In 2008 she
was made the chairwoman of the ethnic minority women's taskforce. In 2009 she was nominated for the
shortlist of female Peer of the Year at the Women in Public Life Awards ...
Click for the interview with Baroness UddinVandana is an award-winning Lawyer, author, columnist and social entrepreneur based in Mumbai, India
with the most amazing story. The BBC documentary,
Invisible Women of India is based on her story.
She is the author of the bestseller
Ex Files which is now a part of the Judicial College syllabus
in India ...
Click for the interview with Vandana ShahColleen worked in business for most of her working life, starting in banking before she
moved to Consultancy and then ran her own HR, training and coaching company. Alongside her corporate
work, she developed her shamanic practice and her journey started many years ago, first by exploring
NLP, then to Sedona where she experienced the native American traditions
and then to Hawaii with the Kahunas. She is a wife, mother and grandmother and has now left corporate
life, concentrating on her shamanic work ...
Click for the interview with Colleen GuyLydia was born in Zimbabwe and has lived in the UK for 25 years. She is passionate about
developing potential in young women, especially in communities where opportunities for women are limited.
She sees young women as the makers and shapers of communities and therefore believes in their power to
bring about and sustain change ...
Click for the interview with Lydia MutareRabia is British / Pakistani and works for International Alert as Emerging Projects Manager.
She is an expert in working with the business sector to help with peace building initiatives.
Rabia leads on the consolidation and growth of Alert's new country programmes, particularly in Afghanistan,
and provides day-to-day managerial support to the implementation of peace-building projects in Sri Lanka.
In a previous role, she spearheaded the introduction and implementation of an international mental health
programme in Pakistan and designed and managed the Pakistan Flood Recovery Fund, an initiative convened
by The Prince of Wales ...
Click for the interview with Rabia NusratSusie encourages women to explore and embrace the true potency and intrinsic strength and presence
of their feminine energy and how to apply this in their personal and professional lives. She also
teaches Conscious Feminine Leadership, creating and establishing a new way of working which is more
balanced and in harmony with the environment and the future of the planet. While bringing up her
children, she established a name for herself as owner of a conservatory interior design
and horticulture company, was a frequent TV and radio guest, a TV presenter and
well-known speaker for the Royal Horticultural Society ...
Click for the interview with Susie HeathPetra was born in Germany. She has studied, lived and worked in Switzerland, Germany, Iran, Spain
and Belgium from where she came to the UK in 1982. After a varied corporate career in the luxury hotel
and business travel industries, and following a redundancy, Petra chose to follow her passion for all
things property and founded Room for Style - Inspired Interiors in 2002, specialising in renovating
properties and interior design ...
Click for the interview with Petra LanderEmily is an
Intuitive Alchemist! What does this mean? Well, she use her intuitive senses to
create healing foods, as well as having created 18 sets (known as 'constellations') of high-vibration
healing products. She is also passionate about food and is nearing completion of her recipe book
The Alchemist's Cookbook - Balance & Wellness Foods ...
Click for the interview with Emily McMorranSue is the founder of Cracking-Events, which she has been running for 17 years. During London 2012
Olympics she looked after the Austrian Olympic and Paralympic National House which was one of the
highlights of her career. Recently, she organised a conference including an array of host and keynote
speakers that included Royals, Lords, Members of Parliament, explorers, celebrities, sporting
personalities and global entrepreneurs. Hher three passions of cycling, skiing and sailing which
leads her to compete at international level ...
Click for the interview with Sue Bannisteris an international life guide, mentor and coach. She is also the author of two books;
The Right T-Shirt, Write Your Own Rules and Live the Life You Want and
Remembering
Perfection - Everyday Inspiration for Living Your Spiritually. Jessica helps people who
are experiencing the 'Wake Up Call', just as she did over 25 years ago ...
Click for the interview with Jessica McGregor JohnsonSharne blends her passion for developing people with practical coaching, learning facilitation
and fitness programmes. She introduced the concept of physical fitness and nutrition advice into
her coaching work to meet the needs of highly-stressed business people to enhance their wellbeing
and improve their ability to sustain high levels of workplace stress ...
Click for the interview with Sharne van der BurghSteph was born in the UK and moved to New Zealand at the age of 7. She has been back in the UK
since 1989. Steph had a private Shiatsu practice in London for 20 years and now runs Graze on the Grand,
a perfect venue for hanging art, a perfect space for sharing with people food / wine / and a gallery
concept overlooking the sea in St Leonards on Sea on the south coast of England ...
Click for the interview with Stephanie GojBeverley is the founder of #EmbraceYourAmbition. This is a global community for women to
confidently embrace their ambitions and dreams. She is a success coach and believes that an ambitious
woman should be supported and encouraged and she provides plenty of that along with challenge when her
clients are hiding out and limiting their beliefs.
Click for the interview with Beverley BramwellRt Hon Patricia Hewitt is the Chair of the UK India Business Council that works with the
British Government to promote bilateral trade between the UK and India ...
Click for the interview with Patricia HewittMoira is a Global HR Executive, for Fortune 100 companies in UK, Europe, Asia, US and India.
For the last five years Moira has lived in Mumbai (although commutes to Singapore, London, Dubai and
New York).
Click for the interview with Moira DicksonFrancesca, aged 95, appeared in a fabulous film two years ago entitled Extraordinary Times
which featured six amazing women, all over 90 ...
Click for the interview with Francesca InskippJane took up a volunteer position with RIJ as Funding Director and in 2006 she was appointed
President and CEO of RIJ following a re-structuring that included recruiting someone for the
first time ...
Click for the interview with Jane BestJill was appointed as the first female Serjeant at Arms in the UK Houses of Parliament in 2008, a
formal job with a very formal uniform. Her responsibilities as Serjeant were security, access and
ceremonial and she loved every moment of it until she retired in the spring of 2012 ...
Click for the interview with Jill PayLynne was from a poor Northern British family. She was a sickly child who missed much schooling and
yet she became an award-winning journalist and national newspaper executive in London ...
Click for the interview with Lynne BatesonJan and Rebecca launced Who's Wearing What Boutique Experience in 2009 with the idea of
selling womenswear through venues and pop-up shops in East Sussex and the Kent borders ...
Click for the interview with Jan and RebeccaSu is a woman fast approaching her 70th year. She was born in London to working class parents.
She married young & had three children, ended up with a failed relationship and bought her three
children up on her own ...
Click for the interview with Su WarrenAt the age of 19, Frances married a Kuwaiti and moved to Kuwait the day after her wedding. She
spent 27 years living in Kuwait, learnt Arabic and opened her own Salon. Nine years ago she divorced
and returned to the UK ...
Click for the interview with Frances HorneIf ever there were anything in the adage that truth is stranger than fiction, it would apply in
the case of Jillian Haslam. Born in Calcutta to British parents in post-colonial India, Jillian faced a
bruising childhood of extreme poverty, malnutrition and disease. She lived through the deaths of four
siblings and some appalling instances of racist abuse. Her rise from the depths of despair and misery
to wealth and international celebrity status is an inspirational story of vindication and coming home ...
Click for the interview with Jillian HaslamPatricia Knightley works within the Chrysalis Programme which aims to reduce the levels of offending, reoffending
and other anti-social behaviour through the provision of a holistic development and rehabilitation
programme for offenders, those at risk of offending and people with anti-social behavioural problems ...
Click for the interview with Patricia KnightleyLady Val Corbett organises a fantastic women in business networking lunch, the proceeds of which go to support the
Prison Reform Trust for Prisoner Rehabilitation which awards money to small charities that do most to
enable ex-offenders to rejoin society and get jobs: 'a hand up, not a handout' ...
Click for the interview with Lady Val CorbettRosie Harness completely changed direction in life in her early 70s and now has her own artisan perfume
business with a range of Gloriously Global fragrances, as well as running Perfume Parties ...
Click for the interview with Rosie HarnessLinda Perry is Director of Children's Services at Chestnut Tree House, the children's hospice for Sussex,
South East England. She worked with children with complex epilepsy for many years, eventually managing
a large team of professors, consultants, doctors, nurses and therapists ...
Click for the interview with Linda PerryMaryon Stewart is well known in both the UK and Australia as a pioneer in the field of non-drug medicine
and in May 2009, following the death of her 21 year old daughter Hester, she established the Angelus
Foundation which has successfully campaigned to raise awareness about the dangers of legal highs and
implement changes in the law to outlaw retail sales in the UK ...
Click for the interview with Maryon StewartBaroness (Caroline) Cox was created a Life Peer in 1982 and was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords from 1985 to 2005.
She is Chief Executive of HART (Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust) ...
Click for the interview with Baroness CoxGina is a passionate vocal philanthropist and launched three online life-style brands ...
Click for the interview with Gina MillerCarol has a background in financial services and the third sector, she is the Chair of Black
Fundraisers UK and the Founder of Money4Youth, a Financial Literacy Programme for Children and Young
People ...
Click for the interview with Carol AkiwumiJenni is a Personal Development Coach and Trainer, a catalyst for change, growth and development. She
is passionate about empowerment, helping women to recognise and increase their power and influence and
work together to achieve their goals ...
Click for the interview with Jenni HallamDiana is a founder member of the Black Parent Network which was set up to provide support to black
parents and their children across a range of issues from education, health and parenting to social and
welfare issues ...
Click for the interview with Diana ChrouchMimi started running in 1999 at the age of 36 and has raced all over the world. She's run
in deserts and mountains, the amazing Peruvian Jungle, she's conquered freezing temperatures in
the Arctic and set a record in one of the hottest places on earth ...
Click for the interview with Mimi Anderson
